Muzzle flash occurs due to the contact of propellant with air at the muzzle end of the firearm barrel, which causes the combustion of residual, unburned propellant as it exits the barrel of a firearm. Muzzle flash is undesirable, especially in combat or other tactical situations where the flash of light created can readily give away the position or location of a shooter at night or under other low ambient light conditions, such that it is common for soldiers and police officers and other shooters to routinely mount flash hiders or flash suppressors over the muzzle end of their firearms. In addition, firearm noise suppressors or silencers have been developed for uses such as special operations combat and variety of further tactical and other situations in which a reduction in the report or sound level created by the firing of a weapon is necessary. It therefore further is advantageous for shooters to be able to quickly and easily mount a silencer or noise suppressor over a flash hider or flash suppressor that is already affixed to the end of a firearm barrel, without requiring the flash hider to first be removed. In recent years, newer flash hider designs and noise suppressors have been developed to facilitate the use of noise suppressors with such flash hiders and which provide a lockable mounting system for attaching the noise suppressors over the flash hiders. It has, however, been observed that at least some types of flash hiders, while being particularly susceptible to the mounting of a noise suppressor thereover, can tend to vibrate and/or exhibit a ringing effect during firing, especially during periods of rapid or fully automatic fire. Such vibration can affect the stability of the mounting of the noise suppressor over the flash hider, which in turn can potentially affect the ability of the shooter to consistently place shots within a desired tight grouping.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need exists for an improved mounting system for the mounting of a noise suppressor to a firearm, which is capable of mounting over an existing flash hider and which provides a stable and secure mounting between the noise suppressor and flash hider that addresses the foregoing and other related and unrelated problems in the art.